Verb Basics

As with all languages, verbs in Japanese conjugate in several ways to provide context to the action at hand. At its basic level, Japanese verb conjugation is about as simple as it comes; you'll have it mastered in no time.

Verb Classification

Before learning how verb conjugations work in Japanese, it is important to learn how verbs are classified. Like adjectives, there are two main groups of verbs: the u-verbs and the ru-verbs.

All ru-verbs end in the sound る. U-verbs, meanwhile, will end in a variety of u-vowel sounds, including る. The rule stands that all ru-verbs will end with る, but not all verbs ending with る are ru-verbs.

If that's the case then how do you distinguish between ru an u-verbs?

One simple rule is this: for verbs ending in る, if the sound proceeding the る ends with an a, o, or u (in romaji), it is definitely a u-verb. If the sound proceeding the ru ends with an i, e, it will be, in most cases, a ru-verb.

Exceptions to the Rule

There are two verbs that are party to neither of these rules. They conjugate differently and can also form compound verbs. As always, exceptions to the rule can prove a pain, but compared to English, the number of exceptions is relatively low.

Common U-verbs, Ru-verbs and the Irregulars

U-verbs	Ru-verbs	Irregulars
遊ぶ	開ける	する
買う	いる	来る
話す	閉める
飲む	食べる
聞く	足りる
待つ	見る

Tenses and Subjects

You will be happy to learn that Japanese verbs only have two tenses: non-past (i.e. present & future) and past.

Also, unlike English and most romantic languages, Japanese verbs do not conjugate based on their subject and remain unaffected whether 'I', 'you', 'he', 'she' or 'they' is the subject.